I woke up in the middle of the night with a thought that the Bush Administration knew that the Republicans didn’t stand a chance at the oval office, so they intentionally drove the economy directly into the ditch so that either Barack or Hillary would have such a monumental job on their hands that they may not be able to show any significant signs of recovery–even over 8 years.
Okay, now on to the story that is related to the headline:
US employers axed 533,000 jobs in November, the biggest monthly cut since 1974, the US Labor Department said.
In a dramatic indication of the worsening situation in the economy, the US jobless rate rose to a 15-year high of 6.7% from 6.5% in October.
Since these latest figures were compiled, further jobs losses have been announced, including big cuts at AT&T.
The grim economic data pushed Wall Street shares down by 2.5% while oil fell to a near four-year low of $40.
Recent data has fuelled fears that the world’s biggest economy is set for a deep, long downturn.
“This was much worse than was expected and represents wholesale capitulation. The threat of a widespread depression is now real and present,” said Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business.
Reacting to the unemployment data, US President-elect Barack Obama said: “There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.”
…
“In the past six months the US has lost 1.55 million jobs, almost as many as were lost in the whole 2001 recession,” said Ian Shepherdson at High Frequency Economics.
“You can’t get much uglier than this. The economy has just collapsed, and has gone into a free fall,” said Richard Yamarone at Argus Research in New York.
Read the whole story here.
girldujour.com 
It’s good to know that this economy is not affecting the jackal that put us in the position. W and Laura are doing their part to stimulate the Dallas area economy by purchasing yet ANOTHER HOME.
https://girldujour.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/recession-bailout-layoffs-and-a-new-home/
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And let us not forget what the taxpayers will have to pony up for rent (or whatever) for the adjacent property….
Did I hear correctly that their new digs are roughly 8000+ sq ft? A possible silver lining is that unemployment comes down some, what, with all the new hires for upkeep and such.
Great blog, btw. Found you through Jon Taplin’s blog, another stellar watering hole.
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Oh, yeah, I know. WE are paying for everything… that’s the burning in the nether regions that you’re experiencing.
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I don’t buy the conspiracy theory that the Repubs intentionally drove the economy into the ditch to saddle the Dems with the cleanup burden. People will not forget this debacle anytime soon–and we will remember the president who presided over 8 years of massive cluster-f**king.
First of all, a totally crashed economy benefits no one. No one in business or government would want a catastrophe like this on their hands. Do you believe business leaders think this is a good thing? Do you believe they would support a political party that intentionally unleashed such havoc?
Secondly, this has been a crisis in the making for decades with too much easy credit, production capacity moving offshore, a lax regulatory environment, etc, etc.
Thirdly, what we are experiencing now is part of the normal boom and bust cycle of markets. I do think that everyone was trying to squeeze every ounce of juice out of the system that they possibly could, in ways that simply didn’t make sense. The whole thing was a house of cards, and now it’s come tumbling down. Was this a conspiracy? Nope, just greed on the usual scale. Unfortunately there were no adults (government regulators) supervising the party.
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I wonder how the neighbors feel about having such a ripe target move in next door? There’ll be SS security tramping all over their lives.
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